1. Technical Field of the Invention
The instant disclosure is directed toward tools for use on wheels like automobile wheels, and more specifically, tools for use with wheel weights utilized on wheels like automobile wheels.
2. Description of the Related Art
Every year millions of small weights are attached to tires by automotive technicians balancing them. Tire balance, also referred to as tire unbalance or imbalance, describes the distribution of mass within an automobile tire and/or the wheel to which it is attached. When the tire rotates, asymmetries of mass may cause the wheel to wobble. This wobbling can give rise to ride disturbances, usually vertical and lateral vibrations. It can also result in a wobbling of the steering. The ride disturbance due to unbalance usually increases with speed. Vehicle suspensions can be excited by tire unbalance forces when the speed of the wheel reaches a point that its rotating frequency equals the suspension's resonant frequency. Tires may be inspected in factories and repair shops by two methods: static balancers and dynamic balancers. Tires with high unbalance forces may typically be downgraded or rejected. When tires may be fitted to wheels at the point of sale, they may be measured again, and correction weights may be applied to counteract the combined effect of the tire and wheel unbalance.
Automotive technicians may reduce the wobble to an acceptable level when balancing the wheel by adding small weights to the inner and outer wheel rims. A wheel weight may be installed by the use of a wheel weight and/or clip that may secure the wheel weight to the edge of the wheel. A tool, like a hammer, may typically be used to hammer the wheel weight and/or clip down onto the wheel. To remove the wheel weight and/or clip a tool, similar to a pair of pliers or a screw driver, may typically be used to grasp and pinch or pry the wheel weight and/or clip to remove the wheel weight.
Traditionally, wheel weights have been made of lead. However, to reduce environmental concerns, steel and zinc weights are being used more frequently. These steel and zinc weights may be coated or non-coated. The coated weights may have a coating on them which has been discovered to chip or scratch during the installation or removal of the wheel weight by standard wheel weight tools. In addition to the problems with the wheel weight chipping or scratching during installation and removal, the actual wheels themselves or rims (or coatings on the wheels or rims) have been discovered to chip and or scratch around their edges during installation or removal of the wheel weight with standard wheel weight tools. As should be understood these chipped and/or scratched portions of the wheels and/or wheel weights may be undesirable for vehicle owners.
Another problem associated with removing wheel weights with traditional tools like pliers and/or screw drivers, may be the user pinching their fingers or hands. These injuries may be another huge issue that tire tech's are having, as the current plier designs may require users to forceably pinch the weight between the pliers jaws, which can easily slip causing pinched finger and hands. Furthermore, with clip only weights the pliers may have no weight body to put between the jaws to remove the weight. The tire technicians may currently be using something like a screw driver and hammer to remove these types of weights which can be very time consuming and may also cause rim scratching.
There are many different sizes and shapes of wheel weights and/or clips. The five major manufacturers that may be known to supply wheel weights in the US are IMI, Hennessy (BADA), JM Nault, Perfect Equipment, and Plumbco. Each manufacturer's weights may differ in where the hole is located on the “clip”, as well as the style and size of said hole. Consequently, it has been discovered that the tire industry currently has many problems with wheel-weight removal due to the changes in design and material of wheel weights being produced, not to mention the number of different wheel weights on today's market. The tools used to remove wheel weights over the last 50 years have been mainly plier type removers and they are no longer sufficiently able to handle the challenges of removing all of the weights being sold and applied in today's market, including tires with curb rubber which adds additional challenges. This issue may only get worse with the current “phasing out” of lead weights, which will most likely be completely implemented throughout the U.S. in the near future. Additionally, rim damage due to the current tools scratching wheels and rims and the additional high cost of workman's comp claims filed due to injuries sustained by tire changer's (employee's) fingers and hands by using inadequate pliers type wheel weight removers.
As a result, there is clearly a need for a wheel weight removal tool that can accommodate many different size and shapes of wheel weights, including many different sized and shaped holes on the clips, that is fast and easy to operate, and reduces or eliminates scratching or pinching even on tires with curb rubber.
Current wheel weight pliers, even those that have some type of point used to engage the wheel weight hole may be improperly designed and sized to remove even, the majority, or all wheel weights. In addition, they may have a tendency to scratch rims and pinch the users fingers or hands when removing wheel weights. Furthermore, the engaging point on other current tools may be permanently affixed to the tool along with the cutter and crimper and when they chip or break it may make the tool un-usable for its intended purpose and the tool must be replaced, making them non economical.
As a result, there is clearly an unmet need for a new design of wheel weight pliers that has the ability to remove all current and future wheel weights from wheels fast, easy, safe and economical, and may reduce or prevent chips and/or scratches on the wheel weight and/or wheel. The instant disclosure may be designed to address at least one or all of these problems.